Channel Choice in the 21st Century: The Hidden Role of Distribution Services
本文区分了商品与服务在生产和分销成本上的可分离性，提出在线环境下分销服务的强II型可分离性，并分析其对在线渠道兴起和主导地位的影响，对营销和经济学有重要启示。
A fundamental distinction between goods and services is that in the retailing of goods and some services the costs of production and distribution are clearly separable in a non-arbitrary fashion, usually identified as costs of goods sold. They have type I separability. Distribution services, which are also known as attributes, marketing mix or output variables, are produced, distributed and consumed just as goods or physical products or core services sold directly to consumers at an explicit price. When online settings generate separability of production distribution and consumption of all these distribution services in space and time we have strong type II separability, which has not been identified in the literature. The latter plays an essential role in the emergence, sustainability and sometimes dominance of online channels. It has profound implications for both the demand side and the supply side of firms in online channels. We develop implications of this result with respect to potential maximum levels of these services in electronic channels and for a broad range of other important topics relevant for marketing and economics.